The author Salman Rushdie will this week come face to face with the man accused of trying to take his life in a frenzied knife attack during a 2022 literary festival near the snowy, lakeside New York community that finds itself hosting the closely watched trial.
Hadi Matar’s twice-delayed trial began on Monday reviving memories of the religious forces that sought to destroy Rushdie, 77, since a fatwa was issued by Iran’s late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini following publication of The Satanic Verses in 1988.
Matar, 27, who has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault, and Rushdie are expected to testify in the large, imposing courthouse in Mayville, New York, with Matar being transported from the Chautauqua county jail across the road and less than a mile from Chautauqua Institution, a liberal arts community where the incident took place.
Mayville is an unlikely place for such a showdown, and the trial is taking place just as the town, on the shores of Lake Chautauqua, prepares for its winter festival next weekend. An ice castle is under construction. And there is no shortage of ice and snow – 142in have fallen this year.
The lake is dotted with the small tents of ice fisherman and snow-mobilers roar up and down the road. But the trial will bring memories of the August day when Mayville’s lakeside summer was abruptly disturbed by the sirens of emergency vehicles racing to the scene of the alleged crime.
“This a beautiful area and all the world’s problems came to visit but not for the right reasons,” said Nicole Kryniski at the Webb hotel, one of several along the lakefront.
Rick Newell, 75, owner of the Lakeview Hotel where snow-mobilers seemed intent on drinking the premises dry on Saturday night, said the incident had shocked the community.
“People from all over the world come to speak or perform at the institution,” he said. “I can’t remember anything like this happening before. There was never any security there, so it was just a free-for-all. It shook everyone up, people were stunned, and started being more careful.”
Rebecca Magnuson, owner of She Sings cafe and an activist against domestic abuse, said Chautauquans had never had any reason to be concerned about security, but after the incident “everything changed a little bit.”
For the wrong reasons, it had made Rushdie well-known in the area, and many said they had read Knife, his published account of the attack and his recovery.
Rushdie recalled his thoughts as the attack unfolded: “Surely, the world had moved on, and the subject was closed. Yet here, approaching me fast, was a sort of time traveler, a murderous ghost from the past,” he wrote.
Prosecutors in the case against Matar have said jurors are unlikely to hear about the fatwa because they probably won’t have to show motive to get a conviction on the state charges.
“From my standpoint, this is a localized event. It’s a stabbing event. It’s fairly straightforward,” the Chautauqua county DA, Jason Schmidt, has said. “I don’t really see a need to get into motive evidence.”
But Matar’s defence lawyer Nathaniel Barone said jurors in the trial should be screened for prejudice.
Mac Service, sitting in the Lakeside Hotel bar, said he had read Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet and Knife. “Rushdie celebrated love over hate. He had a choice to make, and he took the high road,” he said. “I hope the man gets justice.”
Service, a county employee, said it was sad the incident took place in such a peaceful area and at an arts institution founded on intellectual, spiritual and religious tolerance.
“It was upsetting to me what happened. Rushdie didn’t hide in a cave when the fatwa was issued, and he’s always been a presence in the literary world. I’d never read that kind of post-modern literature. It opened new doors for me.”
